Rebecca Ungerman, the Wonderful Tulsa-Based Singer/Songwriter, to Appear in Two Different Shows Soon

On this edition of StudioTulsa, an equally fascinating and entertaining discussion with the one-and-only Rebecca Ungerman, the influential and diversely-talented and fan-tabulous singer/songwriter/performer who's been wowing Tulsa audiences for 20+ years. She's bringing not one but two different shows to the Tulsa PAC's SummerStage series this month: "Cats of Any Color" will be staged on the 17th and 18th, and "Oy, Gestalt!" will be presented on the 24th and 25th. (Please see TulsaPAC.com for more details.) The former is a jazz-infused exploration of the long-lasting and far-reaching connections between Black culture and Jewish culture in American entertainment -- and also in American art, and American life, and so forth -- and the latter is an autobiographical and highly reflective piece...and Ungerman's first one-woman show in more than a decade.

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On this edition of StudioTulsa, we listen back to a discussion that originally aired in February of last year. At that time, we spoke with Julia Clifford, the director of a documentary film called "Children of the Civil Rights." This film tells the little-known yet true story of a group of schoolchildren in Oklahoma City who -- for nearly six years -- staged Civil Rights-era sit-ins at various diners and lunch counters in OKC. These protests began in 1958, more than a year before the far more familiar Greensboro, North Carolina, sit-ins occurred.

On this edition of StudioTulsa, we're discussing the Oscar-nominated documentary feature, "I Am Not Your Negro," which opens locally tomorrow (Friday the 24th) at the Circle Cinema. Indeed, our two guests today -- Hannibal Johnson (a Tulsa-based author and attorney) and Bob Jackson (an Associate Professor of English here at the University of Tulsa) -- will both be speaking about this film, and co-leading an audience-wide discussion about it, tomorrow night at the Circle.

We are pleased to welcome to StudioTulsa the inimitable Rebecca Ungerman, the great Tulsa-based jazz and cabaret singer and performer who's been a beloved diva / chanteuse / force of nature on our local music scene for the past twenty years or so. Ungerman is taking her newest show --- an original musical, called "The Unwitting Wife," which includes new as well as older songs (some of which date back to her first recordings or earliest efforts at songwriting) --- to Israel, of all places, for a series of performances.

On this edition of ST, we're pleased to welcome Rebecca Ungerman back to our program. She has long been known and admired as one of the outstanding jazz/cabaret singers in the Tulsa community. She's also a wonderful songwriter, and her original musical, "The Unwitting Wife," was first staged about two years ago here in town (and was thereafter staged in Israel).

Ten years ago, Griffin Matthews was singing in a church choir when his pastor found out he was gay and kicked him out. Feeling depressed, he booked a ticket to Uganda for mission work. What happened next is the subject of Invisible Thread, a new off-Broadway musical co-written by Matthews and his life partner, Matt Gould.

Matthews, a working New York actor, says he was quickly disillusioned after he arrived in Uganda and found out the man leading his volunteer organization was corrupt.